


Attraction

by fakingitfromthestart



Category: SKAM (France)
Genre: Bipolar Disorder, But I'd rather tag it than not, Fluff, It's actually only mentioned VERY briefly, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-06 19:52:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19069531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fakingitfromthestart/pseuds/fakingitfromthestart
Summary: Eliott Demaury, a struggling artist, wakes up to a few Instagram DM's from his loyal followers, telling him to listen to a radio clip with a certain Lucas Lallement. Eliott has no idea who he is, but apparently he’s cute, talked about Eliott’s art and asked him out on national radio.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title of this story is actually a name of another RIOPY piece. That'll clue you in to where this story is going. 
> 
> Also, this is only my second story ever and English is not my first language. Don't expect too much.

It’s almost 12 am when Eliott wakes up. The sun, blasting through the curtains, brightens up the entire art studio, making it impossible to go back to sleep.

After working into the very late hours of the night, Eliott reluctantly sits up to throw his legs over the edge of the bed. He rubs his eyes for a bit, stretches his arms and tilts his neck to get rid of any kinks caused by sleeping, yet again, on the makeshift bed at his art studio. Another case of a busy mind and tingling fingers, desperate to act as an outlet for Eliott’s brain, if not only for a few hours to get some sleep, did that to him. And had been for the last few days, turning the art studio into where Eliott spends most of his waking, and sleeping, hours recently.

Eventually, Eliott gets up to turn the coffee machine on before taking a quick shower, which had very conveniently already been installed when he got the studio. He then returns to the kitchen to grab his coffee before making his way to his couch to prepare a cigarette and pick up his phone from the nearby coffee table.

There’s quite a few notifications from Instagram saying he’s gained new followers. Opening the app, he’s surprised he’s gained around 200 followers since last night. Something that definitely doesn’t just happen to him. Eliott has, well, had, around 2500 followers last night. Something or someone must have caused that spike, because he didn’t post anything new last night that could’ve lured new people in.

Eliott also has two DM’s from two of his followers that he recognizes. He decides to open them first, assuming they’ll clue him in on what is going on.

From @Polaris: “ _You need to wake up and listen to Lucas Lallement’s interview on Radio 401. He talks about your art. He’d like to discuss some *things* with you.”_

From @MrsIsakValtersen: “ _Guess who’s got a crush on you? Lucas FUCKING Lallement. Go get him!!”_

Thoroughly confused, because Eliott has no idea who Lucas Lallement is, Eliott follows the link provided by the second user. It’s a link to Radio 401’s Twitter profile, captioned _“This morning, the lovely Lucas Lallement visited our studio. In this clip, we started talking about celebrity crushes, but the conversation quickly took a turn. Listen here!”_  

And listen Eliott does.

 

_\---_

 

_“So, Lucas. You’re an openly gay man. Any celebrity crushes at the moment?”_

_“Can I just say that as a gay man, or really, regardless of your sexuality, I am a firm believer that you can have a celebrity crush on anybody - even someone who would normally fall outside of what you’re usually attracted to. You don’t really know these people, so whatever you imagine them to be is never going to be a true portrayal of who they really are. So even if you identify as gay, there’s nothing stopping you from also being attracted to a woman. I mean, if you see a really funny interview with a woman, that might just mean you’re attracted to people with a great sense of humor. That’s the case for me at least. I mean, I find Emilia Clark really attractive, but I am still gay. She’s just really funny and adorable, and I find that very attractive, I guess.”_

_“But there’s also this amazing artist that I found recently. He does very minimalistic drawings and sketches of, from what I can understand, is what is going on in his head. Like, there’s one where a pair of hands are scribbling something onto a piece of paper, but then it gets thrown into a bin and the hands start over on a new piece of paper. I mean, it’s so simple, and all in black and white. But it’s really fascinating! And because it’s supposed to be a visual representation of something nobody is ever going to see, because it’s all thoughts in his own head and feelings in his body, you as a viewer can interpret it any way you want. Like, there’s no right or wrong way of interpreting it. I really like that”_

_“That’s really cool. What’s his name?”_

_“Eliott. Eliott Demaury, I think. His Instagram is @srodulv. I really encourage anyone to go follow him. And, uh, if he by any odd chance listens to this, I just want to say Hi Eliott. I really love your work, and I’d love to pick your brain about it if you’re ever up for it.”_

_“Ooooh,” the interviewer laughs teasingly._

_“He’s never going to hear this anyway,” Lucas says shruggingly._

_“Well, you never know” the interviewer laughs again._

 

\---

 

Eliott is stunned. The clip is long over, but he can’t believe what he just heard. He honestly has no idea who this Lucas Lallement is, what he does for a living or why he was even on the show in the first place. _He has to be some sort of celebrity in order to be on that show, right?_ But Eliott couldn’t care less. He didn’t care who Lucas was. All he cared about was the way he spoke about art, _his_ art, as if it truly meant something to him. This _thing_ that Eliott only really made for himself, but on a whim had been brave enough to post on Instagram. Along the way, he’d gathered a small, but loyal group of followers. He didn’t know that a celebrity, _he has to be a celebrity to be on this show, right,_ was even following him.

Butting his cigarette in a nearby ashtray, Eliott goes back to Instagram and searches for this Lucas Lallement. Luckily, he only has to type in a couple of letters before the mystery guy shows up, highlighted as one of Eliott’s followers.

Normally, Eliott would get shy at this point. He wasn’t usually the one to make the first move. A few too many comments about being nerdy in school and his lanky body had seriously impacted his confidence. Also, that bipolar disorder thing wasn’t the sexiest of topics. But something about what Lucas had said made him ignore what the voice inside his head was telling him.

Eliott tapped on the suggested user, and although the profile picture, taken from too far away to give away any details, didn’t clue him in on who Lucas Lallement, his 350.000 followers were quite impressive. The bio didn’t contain much information either except for a link to what looked like a ticket master site. Instead, Eliott’s glanced over the photos on Lucas’s grid, showing a variety of concert halls, a group of friends all doing weird and probably inside jokey stuff, and the odd selfie. One in particular stood out, although technically not a selfie. Eliott selected the photo that seemed to be taken by a professional photographer to view it in a bigger version.

 _This can’t be fucking right,_ Eliott thought. _There’s no way that this guy not only likes my art but also considers me his celebrity crush. No fucking way!_

 _“Definitely better at working the piano than the camera. That’s not to take anything away from @petesphotos, though. Amazingly talented photographer!  Thank you for having me!” the caption read._  

_So, he’s a musician? That’s cool! But like, WHAT THE HELL!_

_Just fucking do it, Eliott. It’s not like you’re creeping into somebody’s DM’s. He mentioned you on national radio and basically asked you out._

_But he doesn’t even know me! He said it himself._

_And he’s never going to unless you contact him. Just do it!_  

 _Okay._  

_Fuuuuck._

_I am doing it._

 

_...I can’t believe I am doing this._

 

_“Hi Lucas._

_Thank you so so much for your kind words on Radio 401 this morning. I just heard it and I am in complete awe. I’d love to meet and talk whenever you’re in Paris and are free._

_Let me know._

_Bisous_ _.“_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) I don’t know any French radio shows. Maybe Radio 401 already exists, but it's meant to be fictional. So, if it exists and is shitty, this is not it.  
> 2) I don’t know anything about French texting etiquette. Maybe you don’t finish texts with Bisous. I don’t know. At least I tried.  
> 3) The photo Eliott finds on Lucas’ profile is supposed to be this one: http://diffusionph.cccommunication.biz/jpgok/RepGR/672/672197_11.jpg  
> 4) Btw, I imagine Lucas and Eliott being around Maxence's and Axel's current age here. So, early/mid-twenties.
> 
> I am really enjoying writing at the moment, and I don't know when/if I'll be able to write a second part of this story. But the story obviously isn't complete. So let me know if you want me to continue this one before starting something else.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliott hadn't wanted to get his hopes up. But here he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you SO SO much for all the comments and the amazing response on the last chapter. It made me want to dive right back into this story as soon as possible. So this is to all of you! 
> 
> And of course, Eid Mubarak!

Eliott didn’t really want to get his hopes up. Yes, the next classical music prodigy, or so he’d gathered, had gushed about Eliott’s art on national radio and even admitted to having a crush on him. You know, _the_ _usual_. But when Eliott reached out to Lucas on Instagram, he honestly hadn’t even expected a reply. At best, he thought it would take Lucas forever to reply, and by then, he probably would have backtracked on his words. Maybe he’d even use some lame excuse about not being in Paris anytime soon, making it impossible to match up their calendars, as a way out of the situation he’d gotten himself into.

But to Eliott’s surprise, Lucas had replied within the hour.

 

_“OMG HI!_

_I can’t believe you heard that… I am happy that you did, of course! I just didn’t think that you actually would._  

_Also, I am in Paris next week. Would you be free for some coffee on Tuesday?_

_Can’t wait to actually meet you!_

_Bisous”_

 

Then he expected Lucas to disappear without making any conversation for the next week. That didn’t happen either. Every few days, Lucas would chime in with a _“Hey. Hope you’re having a great day. What are you up to?”_ or a _“I feel like I’ve gushed about you enough at this point, so I don’t want to embarrass myself any further in the comments. But that last piece you just posted. *sobs*. Is it something you did recently?”_

So yeah, he was getting his hopes up. Hoping this will be the one person who’ll get him. Get his passion for art. Who won’t care that Eliott doesn’t really have any friends. Or care about his fucked up brain.

Still, Eliott kept waiting for the bomb to drop. For Lucas to text him at any point to let him know that he couldn’t make their date. _Was it even a date?_ Or even worse, that he’d changed his mind and didn’t want to see or talk to Eliott again. When Tuesday came around though, neither of those things had happened.

 

\---

 

That morning, Eliott woke up at 8 am. Him and Lucas had decided to meet up at noon, so Eliott had hoped for a bit of a lie-in. However, when finding himself unable to fall back asleep, Eliott leaned over the edge of his bed and grabbed the sketchbook that had been tossed on the floor the night before. He fluffed the pillows, sat with his back up against the wall and started sketching. A few hours later, he got up. 

While enjoying his morning cup of coffee on the couch, Eliott inspects his sketches. He crosses out a few of them immediately. They hadn’t turned out the way he wanted them to. But one of them, he circles. It has potential.

After grabbing a quick shower, he sits back down to clean up his drawing. Crossing his legs, he opens the Procreate app on his iPad and starts by outlining the hour glass with a thin black brush. He makes the lines uneven and a bit shaky on purpose. He then chooses a pencil-like brush to draw the sand passing from the top of the hour glass to the bottom, before going back to the original black brush to draw his signature racoon lying on top of the hour glass.

It wasn’t his best piece, or the most subtle one. But it was a clear representation of his current state of mind. Rough around the edges from past experiences, glass like and transparent **.** A bystander, waiting for something meaningful to happen. Something worthwhile.

Or maybe he was simply waiting for the next hour or so to pass until he got to see Lucas. Lucas with his ridiculously blue and expressive eyes. The most beautiful nose and spikiest and most unruly hair he’d ever seen. _Yeah, he had looked through Lucas’ Instagram quite a lot over the past week, okay._ Lucas even seemed truly comfortable in his own skin and his own sexuality, speaking so openly about it on national radio. Eliott was neither of those two things.

Although he knew he was pansexual, Eliott had never really come out. His parents more or less knew he wasn’t straight. But he had never brought a partner home, and so he hadn’t felt the need to explain his sexuality to them. And besides his parents, he didn’t really have anyone else to come out to.

After a few final touches, Eliott is as happy with the drawing as he’ll ever be. Which is accidentally also when he notices the clock on his iPad. It’s still a bit early, but he decides to get ready anyway. He reasons that he can always just walk to where he’s meeting Lucas instead of taking the metro. Before getting up, Eliott posts his drawing on Instagram. He decides against writing a caption for it, leaving the interpretation up to the viewer.

While it processes, he puts his shoes on and goes to the mirror for one final check before leaving. While grabbing his keys from the little bowl on the shelf below the mirror, his phone pings with a notification from Instagram. It’s Lucas. He’s liked the photo already. _How is that even possible? Does Lucas have notifications on his profile turned on!?_

Shaking his head in disbelief for what feels like the 100th time in just under a week, Eliott heads out, ready to meet the (in)famous Lucas Lallemant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this chapter. I know not much happend, but I wanted to give you a better idea of Eliott in this universe and where he is mentally. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought and what you think is going to happen next! 
> 
> Also, kudos to you if you knew without looking it up what drawing Eliott was making while passing time before his date with Lucas.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's here. The first meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you SO much for all the kind words and the feedback on this story so far. I really did not expect this. 
> 
> To be honest, I had no idea how to approach this chapter and I hate writing dialogue, so I am not 100 percent happy with it. But I wanted to get it out there to you guys, and it happens to be the longest chapter so far, so I hope you enjoy!

Eliott spots Lucas immediately. He wipes his sweaty hands on his pants before approaching the café they’d decided to meet at. Lucas is in deep thoughts. There’s an open notebook laying on the table in front of him and his fingers tap the edge of the table, mimicking piano playing. With Lucas totally unaware of Eliott arriving, Eliott clears his throat and smiles. Lucas looks up. There’s no embarrassment from being caught in his own head or even a hint of smile. He simply looks at him, confused. Almost as if he doesn’t recognize him?

Eliott introduces himself hesitantly. “Eliott”.

“Holy shit. I am so so sorry.” Lucas smiles and scrambles to push his notebook aside. “I completely zoned out. Sit down, sit down.” Lucas gestures to the chair facing him.

Eliott smiles and sits down.

“Thank you for coming.”

“Of course.”

Eliott’s eyes move around the café, not sure what to do or where to look. This had all been Lucas’s idea. What now? How do they even start this conversation? His eyes eventually settle on the green notebook on the table. It’s clearly loved, with scraps and marks on the front cover and dog ears throughout.

Through it all, Eliott can feel Lucas’s eyes on him. He is not even hiding the fact that he is staring. Exploring. Taking him in. “So that’s what the famous Eliott Demaury looks like”.

Eliott turns his head towards him immediately. “I’m not-... What do you mean?”

Lucas flashes a huge smile. “You’ve never posted a picture of yourself, so I didn’t know what you looked like”. He shrugs.  “It’s good to finally put a face to the name, though.”

Eliott’s eyebrows raise in disbelief. He hadn’t known?

“I knew I’d like what I’d see, but I didn’t know you’d look like a fucking model”.

Eliott shakes his head in disbelief.

Lucas laughs, “What?”

Eliott smiles. “Nothing.”

 

\--

 

“How are you?” Lucas eventually asks.

Eliott loosens his tight grip on the chair immediately. He folds his hands in his lap, “A little nervous”.

“Why are you nervous?”

“I don’t know.” Eliott shrugs. “Because I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know what this is supposed to be or what you want to know.”

“I just thought we could talk for a bit. ”Lucas smiles. ”Talk about you.”

Eliott huffs, “As if that’s any less intimidating”

Lucas leans forward, “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, you know”

“No, no. I want to. I just. My art is very personal to me and I’ve never talked about it with anyone. About what it means and all that. And yeah, I just don’t know what to expect.”

“I know I was very straight forward with what I said last week. And I’m sorry if it made you uncomfortable or if I overstepped anything. I don’t always think before I speak and I should’ve known that obviously your art is very personal and talking about it could make you feel vulnerable. So if I’m invading on anything, _please_ let me know.”

Eliott shakes his head, “You’re not. I just haven’t done this before.”

Lucas smiles, but it’s short lived. He turns serious, even more serious than before. “And about the other thing. I get crushes easily, okay. When I feel like I have a connection with someone, it doesn’t take much. And sometimes that’s a bit intimidating. I get that.” Lucas pauses. “But I felt a connection to you immediately. Which is fucking weird to say, I know. Because we’d never talked or met. I mean, I hadn’t even seen a picture of you. But I just felt like you got me. Your art got me. And if nothing else, I just wanted to share that with the world. So don’t feel freaked out about what I said, okay. We can just forget about that. Also, I don’t know if you’re already dating someone or if you’re even into guys”.

“I’m not. Dating anyone, I mean.”

“Oh really?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay,” Lucas grins. “Okay.”

 

\--

 

“So what do you want to know?”

“Oh shit, right.” Lucas opens his notebook. He looks through a few pages before finding the one he’d seemingly been looking for. He runs his hand along the middle of the book, making sure it stays open. “I guess I just want to know what your inspiration is and how you select what to post?”

“You wrote questions?” Eliott smiles.

“Yeah. I really love your stuff and wanted to make sure I didn’t forget anything.” Lucas’s cheek turn a lovely shade of pink, but he doesn’t seem too affected by it himself. “So, your inspiration?”

“Right. Um. I guess, I am in my head quite a lot. Like, I overthink situations, what’s going to happen if I do this, what’s going to happen if I do that. Or why didn’t I do this back in that situation. So my mind can be quite a busy place sometimes, and unless I get some of all _that_ onto paper, I can get quite overwhelmed. So it’s very therapeutic, actually. Which is why it was really weird hearing you say that you were able to take something from it and that you got what it’s supposed to be. Because it’s just an expression of stuff that’s going on inside my body, you know.”

Lucas nods, but continues to question, “When you’re in that mood and sit down to draw, do you always know what you want to draw, or do you just let whatever happens happen?”

“Oh, I never have a fucking clue what I’m going to draw,” Eliott laughs. “I just draw and yeah, whatever happens happen.”

Lucas smiles, “That’s really cool. I get that with my music sometimes too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I get this tingly feeling in my fingers sometimes where they just need to do something. Sometimes I just sit down at the piano with no plan of what to play, and they just have a mind of their own.”

Eliott nods enthusiastically, “Yeah, exactly. It’s amazing how your body is able to create something without your mind realizing it or telling it what to do. Obviously, it doesn’t always turn out great, but if I feel stressed or nervous, I always draw.”

“Yeah, me too”. Lucas pats his notebook while maintaining eye contact. “I just write music instead.”

A few seconds later, Lucas looks back down over his notes. “Why are all your drawings in black and white?”

“Uh. I don’t know really. It was never really a conscious decision I made. I always do my sketches with a pencil. So the first draft is always in black and white anyway.” Elliot takes a deep breath. “But I guess I see the world very much in black and white to begin with. And I see duality in a lot of things. Either this or that will happen. I’m either going to have a good day today or I am going to have a bad day. So it makes sense to stick to black and white. Light and dark, you know.” Eliott notices the small frown on Lucas’s face. “I’m not explaining this very well, I guess, but it’s just how my brain is wired.”

“That’s okay. I was just wondering if it was a conscious decision to only do it in black and white or if just sorta happened.”

“Definitely something that just happened, but not something I’m surprised by at all. Like I said, that’s just how my brain works.”

Eliott can tell that Lucas knows there’s more to it. That he’s not telling him the full story. But going from never talking about his art to laying it all, bipolar disorder included, on the table, is too much. It’s too soon. He knows he can trust Lucas though. Somehow he just does. But maybe that’s also why he doesn’t want to say anything. He doesn’t want to ruin whatever this could be before it’s even started. Lucas doesn’t even know him. Lucas had even said so himself. And now that he’s starting to, who knows what he thinks.

Seeing Lucas looking back over his notes, Eliott has to stop himself from releasing an audible sigh of relief, knowing that he’s off the hook. For now.

“Who’s the racoon then?”

Eliott laughs, “That’s me.”

Lucas’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “You? Why?” 

“It’s my spirit animal.” Eliott shrugs as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. He leans back in his seat and can’t help but smile when Lucas follows him immediately. A physical manifestation of the magnetic pull that Eliott had felt towards Lucas from day one. Flipped and stronger than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it's unclear, I don't think it's embarrassing to have a mental disorder. AT ALL. But this Eliott does. I also don't know what it's like to be bipolar, so I didn't want to write about in too much detail. Just in case I got it wrong. But if there's anything that is completely off, feel free to educate me. We're all here to learn and grow. 
> 
> Also, I haven't decided yet whether I am actually doing the fourth chapter (will probably be a epilogue kinda thing), or if I am sticking with the three chapters and leaving it a bit more open. We'll see..


End file.
